Climate Scientist Sues Canada’s National Post

VANCOUVER, B.C. (CN) – One of Canada’s leading climate scientists claims the right-leaning National Post newspaper defamed him by falsely reporting that he signed off on manipulated climate change studies, then tried to distance himself from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change so-called “Climategate” emails.

Andrew Weaver was a lead author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He holds the Canada research chair in climate modeling and analysis at the University of Victoria’s school of Earth and Ocean Sciences. Weaver says the National Post libeled him by accusing him of cherry-picking data to support his climate change research. After emails between scientists were leaked in the so-called “Climategate” brouhaha, the Post accused Weaver of concocting a story about break-ins at his offices “to divert public attention from an alleged IPCC scandal,” according to the complaint. Weaver says that his offices were broken into twice in 2008. He says the Post falsely claimed that he blamed the “evil fossil fuel industry” for the break-ins, and also claimed that he falsely tied the thefts to the “Climate gate email scandal.” In his complaint in B.C. Supreme Court, Weaver says the articles would cause a “reasonable reader” to believe, falsely, that Weaver “knows or believes that the IPCC reports concerning global warming are unscientific and fraudulent and he now deviously seeks to avoid personal accountability for hype, manipulation and distortion in IPCC reports by dissociating himself from that organization and calling for replacement of its leadership and institutional reform of the IPCC.” Weaver adds that the Post tried to debunk his research, calling the IPCC’s Copenhagen Diagnosis report a piece of “agit-prop.” Weaver says, “the report is a science piece. There are no policy prescriptions. It synthesized the most policy-relevant climate science published in the most credible and peer reviewed literature since the close-off of material for the most recent IPCC report.” Weaver also sued the Post’s editor-in-chief Terence Corcoran, columnist Peter Foster, staffer Kevin Libin, publisher Gordon Fisher, and unknown posters on the paper’s online comment section. He says the Post refused to print retractions or an apology and the libel is still spreading throughout the world on the Internet. He wants the pieces retracted, taken off the Internet, and punitive damages for defamation. Weaver is represented by Roger McConchie.